How They Got Olivia Wilde to Parody Herself in ‘Chinatown’-Inspired Episode 4

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Studio Season 1 Episode 4, “The Missing Reel.”]

Olivia Wilde goes “full Fincher” in Episode 4 of Apple TV+‘s The Studio, an excellent comedy chock full of stars satirizing their own industry — and for some of the actors, themselves. “The Missing Reel,” available as of April 9, features Wilde directing Zac Efron in a Chinatown-inspired film noir that’s being shot entirely on film, resulting in a highly expensive production. When a film reel containing one of the movie’s most important scenes goes missing, Continental Studios head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) and Continental executive Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz) investigate.

Whether intended or not, “The Missing Reel” plays into the real-life celebrity gossip rumor mill that surrounded Wilde’s 2019 film Don’t Worry Darling. Rumors of a romance with star Harry Styles and a rift with star Florence Pugh resulted in Wilde having a reputation for being an “unprofessional” director. At the same time, rumors were flying about Wilde’s separation from ex-fiancé Jason Sudeikis, with whom she shares two children. “The Missing Reel” depicts Wilde as a “difficult” director who goes to extreme, unnecessary lengths for the sake of her film that she believes to be a masterpiece. As characters joke throughout the episode, it’s really just a rip-off of Chinatown, the iconic detective film noir from the 1970s starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. “Good artists borrow, and great artists steal,” several characters, including Wilde, joke in the episode.

The Studio co-creator Evan Goldberg told TV Insider that wrangling Wilde and the show’s long list of guest stars involved different conversations with each talent. Wilde was most interested by character development. Goldberg said, “We had to meet her and convince her to do it and work on the character with her.” The same went for Ron Howard, who guest-starred in Episode 3, “The Note.” Martin Scorsese, who appeared in Episode 1, was convinced by the script.

Wilde was clearly game to act like an intense director. Crew members in the episode say that Wilde had gone “full Fincher” in the final days of filming, referencing director David Fincher‘s habit of making actors do many takes of a scene.

“She made Zac do 40 takes of putting on a hat. It was f**king nuts. He was about to lose his sh*t,” a crew member in charge of transporting the film reel told Matt and Sal. Wilde was cooperating with the investigation, as was Efron. Efron was their first primary suspect, as he had a stash of cash “for the goods” hidden in his trailer. Turns out, that was money to fund the wrap party Matt wouldn’t approve because too much money had been spent on the film.

Wilde was the one who actually stole the reel. She wanted to reshoot the film’s climactic scene and get more funding to make a change to it, so she tried to force Matt’s “cheap” hand by making the reel go “missing,” which would then prompt insurance to cover a reshoot. She only kept the film safe instead of destroying it entirely because it also contained her cameo in the film, which everyone said on set was award-worthy. She called it the “best performance of [her] career.” It’s too bad no one will see it! To get her reshoots — and as a “f**k you” to Matt, who called it a bad ripoff of Chinatown — Wilde destroyed the film at the episode’s end. Matt personally funded the reshoots because, as his narration says at the end, “In this town, [directors] call the shots. Classic Hollywood ending. Pretty, isn’t it?”

The Studio, Wednesdays, Apple TV+